The Dry River Laman

In chapter 2 of First Nephi, Lehi's family camps by the Red Sea. This was most probably a very meaningful detail to Lehi.  I can only imagine that Lehi, being a Jew, was overcome with thoughts about the children of Israel, and their history: the captivity in Egypt, the promise of a new land of freedom, the threat of certain destruction, and the hope of salvation through the Red Sea. Lehi's situation at the time was almost a perfect mirror to that of the children of Israel.

All of this must have been on Lehi's mind while exhorting Laman, “O that thou mightest be like unto this river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness!” (1 Nephi 2:9)

Though the river mentioned emptied into the Red Sea, Lehi knew Jesus Christ to be the true Fountain of all Righteousness, the way “whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God.” (2 Nephi 31:21)  Indeed, the children of Israel’s walk through the Red Sea, the divinely appointed means for them to escape destruction at the hands of the Egyptians, should have been (and should still be) an unforgettable reminder that there is no “other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.” (Mosiah 3:17)

Interested in the actual geography of these events, I did a quick internet search and learned that no rivers feed into the Red Sea.  I’ve done no follow-up research to confirm what I found, because it’s the symbolism of what I learned that I think makes it worth mentioning.

Lehi saw a river that flowed constantly into the Red Sea, and Lehi compared that river to Laman running constantly to the Savior.  For better or for worse, we do not get to see Lehi’s hope brought to pass.  Just as there are no rivers flowing into the Red Sea, Laman and many of Laman’s descendants did not turn to Jesus Christ.

Everything we read in the scriptures has a degree of literal or physical truth and a degree of figurative or spiritual truth.  It’s not always clear to me what I’m seeing whenever I read the scriptures. Regardless, I do know the scriptures are true, and that all the promises and warnings either have or will come to pass.  Consequences for sin will be real and severe.  The redemption of the faithful will be infinite and eternal.

We might travel around the Red Sea, wondering if we would ever find a river that made its way there.  We might struggle even to find a path that a river might take to get to the Red Sea.  In the midst of such struggles, it becomes easy to give up.

We must always remember that He who made the heaven and the earth also gathered the waters and let the dry land appear. (Genesis 1:9)  It is He who gives and he who takes away. (Job 1:21)  Without Him we truly have nothing, and with Him, we are never truly in want.  He will make our cups to always overflow, if we will flow continually to Him.